Digital Health Illustrated: Big Health Data’s Dark Side [VIDEO]

Dr. Robert Wah, president of the American Medical Association (AMA), is deeply worried about health data security. Earlier this month he warned:

“[There’s] an arms race between the criminal element and the people trying to protect health data . . . the health data stewards are probably a little behind in the [privacy and security race]. The criminal elements are incredibly sophisticated.”

Dr. Robert Wah, president of the American Medical Association (AMA), is deeply worried about health data security. Earlier this month he warned:

“[There’s] an arms race between the criminal element and the people trying to protect health data . . . the health data stewards are probably a little behind in the [privacy and security race]. The criminal elements are incredibly sophisticated.”

The AMA is not the only organization focusing on health data privacy and security issues currently. Julie Brill, commissioner of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, recently said she is worried that mobile health app makers are collecting and using health data inappropriately.

In a previous episode of Digital Health Illustrated I discussed the benefits of health data, from its ability to speed medical research to even predict whether people will become ill. In this installment (below), I focus on questions related to the dark side of big health data, such as:

Are criminal elements selling health data records?

Are people concerned about privacy and security issues associated with health data collection?

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